Santiam Correctional Institution: Plan to close prison to save money doesn't add up

AFSCME Council 75 represents the workers in the vast majority of the state corrections facilities in Oregon. Our members work hard to protect the public, while working with inmates incarcerated in 13 prisons throughout the state. While the majority of our members are corrections officers, we also represent counselors, dentists, food service workers, nurses, maintenance and clerical workers, among others. These jobs are tough, stressful and sometimes dangerous.

The Oregon Legislature and governor are currently considering how to close a $340 million budget hole because tax revenues are less than expected when forecast last May. Part of a budget deal announced on the first day of this year's legislative session would close the Santiam Correctional Institution southeast of Salem. The estimated savings after closure in June would be $1.6 million.

The governor and the Legislature should reconsider this plan. The closure plan and the numbers don't add up. The closure is a knee-jerk reaction to a real budget problem.

The Santiam Correctional Institution holds 440 inmates. It is a minimum-security facility. Typically, minimum-security facilities are the cheapest to operate, followed by medium-security, with maximum-security facilities at the highest cost per inmate.

The legislative plan is to release none of the 440 inmates, but ship them to other prisons throughout Oregon. Under the current plan, 50 percent of these minimum-security inmates would be then imprisoned in a higher-cost medium-security facility. All the 440 inmates would be pushed into an already overcrowded prison system. We have 395 inmates pushed into triple-bunked cells intended for two inmates and bunked in classrooms and areas supposed to be designated for inmate labor. We have units that were designated for 80 inmates with 120 inmates, with only one corrections officer supervising these inmates. We have units with blind spots, including no sightline to the bathroom, with only one corrections officer supervising 80 to 100 inmates.

The plan to send 440 more inmates into an overcrowded system would create dangerous and hazardous work for our members and the inmates. Prison overcrowding leads to assaults on staff and other inmates and to lawsuits.

The Department of Corrections believes it would have to reopen the facility 12 to 18 months later because of inmate population growth. The leadership of this union is opposed to the closure of the Santiam facility. Department leadership has asked legislators to let them find the $1.6 million of cuts in the budget of the whole department. Legislators should do their jobs to monitor budget needs, but none of them has ever even run a prison.

Let the managers and workers at the Department of Corrections put together a plan to save $1.6 million. Don't close the Santiam Correctional Institution.

Ken Allen is the executive director of Oregon Council 75 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.